1 Word to Simplify SEO

Since our initial launch date, Melanie Rembrandt has been an integral part of the StartupNation team.

As the founder of Rembrandt Communications®, LLC, www.rembrandtwrites.com, Melanie is one of the country's top, public-relations consultants, an SEO copywriter and a published writer with over 20 years of extensive experience and an excellent track-record for success.

Melanie offers tips and insights via her blogs and monthly newsletter, "Rembrandt Writes Insights®." And she provides in-depth training presentations to various businesses and organizations nationwide.

Melanie is also the author of "Secrets of Becoming a Publicist," published by American Writers & Artists, Inc., "Simple Publicity," published by 1WinPress, StartupNation's "7 Steps to Successful Public Relations," and the host of the SmallBiz America Radio Channel, "PR and SEO Quick Tips with Melanie Rembrandt."

A magna cum laude graduate of the prestigious UCLA School of Theater,Film and Television, Melanie is the official small-business PR expert for StartupNation and Pink Magazine Online. She’s open to your questions, comments and suggestions at melanie@startupnation.com and @rembrandtwrites on Twitter.

And you can also sign-up to receive her e-newsletter and reports packed with great information at: http://www.startupnation.com/steps/77/steps-successful-public-relations.htm.

You receive hundreds of e-mails, calls, Webinar requests, and more each month about how someone can get you better search rankings on the Internet.

Most of these messages go into your trash with a simple click of the delete button.

After all, all this data is overwhelming, and you need to focus on your work priorities.

You’ll deal with your search engine optimization (SEO) later.

Does this sound familiar?

There is a lot of search engine optimization information out there, and it can make your head spin, especially if you’re not quite sure what it is or what to do with it.

Well, to make it simple, SEO is simply providing valuable content to your target market and the search engines in order to increase online awareness.

Do you need to optimize your site?

With all of this being said, it’s important to deal with your SEO activities now.

After all, if your competition has an optimized site and you do not, guess where potential customers are going to go first online?

By optimizing your site for the search engines, you can increase the number of people who visit your site and buy your products and services.

“But Melanie, I’m not a techie, and I have no idea where to start with my SEO activities.”

Is this running through your head? Don’t worry.

SEO does not need to be difficult. To deal with the overwhelming amount of SEO information out there, think about one word:

VALUE

The key to having a good Website that attracts traffic is value.

With this in mind, ask yourself these questions:

• What keeps your target market up at night? • How can you solve their problems? • What words do you think your target market will use to search for your products and services online? • What words do your competitors use?

Think about your answers, research what your competitors are doing and develop your messaging based on this data. Then, use this information to provide your target market with the solutions they seek.

Write your website copy so that it includes this information and provides value. Your content should be easy to read and get to the point fast.

And in your writing process, sprinkle in your top keywords in your headlines, sub-headlines and links. This way, the search engines, and your customers, will start to notice you.

This is just the beginning of your SEO activities…

Now, this simple process will help you start your SEO activities. But note that you’ll need extensive keyword research, special coding, monitoring, and regular updates to fully optimize your site for the search engines.

And while you can learn this process yourself, you may want to set aside a budget for an SEO copywriter to help you. This way, you can focus on your core, business responsibilities and avoid wasting time and hassles. Plus, the amount of site traffic and sales you receive can more than cover the cost of outsourcing your SEO needs.

Since our initial launch date, Melanie Rembrandt has been an integral part of the StartupNation team.As the founder of Rembrandt Communications®, LLC, www.rembrandtwrites.com, Melanie is one of the country's top, public-relations consultants, an SEO copywriter and a published writer with over 20 years of extensive experience and an excellent track-record for success.She specializes in helping entrepreneurs get the attention and credibility they need via targeted public-relations and SEO copywriting efforts (including Web site copy that sells, newsletters, eReports, social media, blogs, SEO press releases, e-mail auto responders, direct marketing, and more!).Melanie offers tips and insights via her blogs and monthly newsletter, "Rembrandt Writes Insights®." And she provides in-depth training presentations to various businesses and organizations nationwide.Melanie is also the author of "Secrets of Becoming a Publicist," published by American Writers & Artists, Inc., "Simple Publicity," published by 1WinPress, StartupNation's "7 Steps to Successful Public Relations," and the host of the SmallBiz America Radio Channel, "PR and SEO Quick Tips with Melanie Rembrandt."A magna cum laude graduate of the prestigious UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television, Melanie is the official small-business PR expert for StartupNation and Pink Magazine Online. She’s open to your questions, comments and suggestions at melanie@startupnation.com and @rembrandtwrites on Twitter.And you can also sign-up to receive her e-newsletter and reports packed with great information at: http://www.startupnation.com/steps/77/steps-successful-public-relations.htm.